British academic Adam Swift told ABC presenter Joe Gelonesi the benefits of the time-honoured custom were greater than a private school education.

“Evidence shows that the difference between those who get bedtime stories and those who don’t — the difference in their life chances — is bigger than the difference between those who get elite private schooling and those that don’t,” Mr Swift said.

According to Mr Swift, the “devilish twist” was whether bedtime stories should be restricted.

Ultimately the net good of bedtime reading in promoting strong family bonds outweighed any other downsides, Mr Swift said.

“You have to allow parents to engage in bedtime stories activities, in fact we encourage them because those are the kinds of interactions between parents and children that do indeed foster and produce these (desired) familial relationship goods.”

But parents should be mindful of the advantage provided by bedtime reading, he said.

“I don’t think parents reading their children bedtime stories should constantly have in their minds the way that they are unfairly disadvantaging other people’s children, but I think they should have that thought occasionally,” he said.

Read more at http://www.9news.com.au/national/2015/05/05/09/44/bedtime-reading-could-disadvantage-other-children-academic-says#dE7SdbI6xTZf4qvd.99

This really opened my eyes. Ban reading. Ban books in general from every household. There are people who can't afford books, the ones who can shouldn't be allowed to buy them. While we're at it, make the people who can't afford it also get more money so they can be on the same level as those who can afford books. What about educational games? We should ban those too. No kid of mine is gonna go to school with some fancy kid that can do things like read and spell!

“I don’t think parents reading their children bedtime stories should constantly have in their minds the way that they are unfairly disadvantaging other people’s children, but I think they should have that thought occasionally"